Nanjirinji A

Nanjirinji A village is the most successful village to be included in MCDI’s FSC group certificate scheme, joining the group in September 2012. Nanjirinji A has completed an initial land use plan, has mapped its VLFR and has drafted a management plan and by-laws, all of which were approved at the village, ward and district levels.

Our work in Nanjirinji A

MCDI helped Nanjirinji A village establish its 83,538 hectare VLFR. It has also assisted the village develop a land use and management plan for the VLFR and it helped it become a part of the FSC group certificate scheme.

MCDI began working with Nanjirinji A village in 2008, assisting the village undertake the many steps required for PFM – e.g. conduct a village land use plan, identify and demarcate boundaries for a Village Land Forest Reserve, establish a Village Natural Resource Committee (VNRC), and seek approval of by-laws and management plans at village, ward and district levels. Once PFM was well established in Nanjirinji A village, we introduced the concept of the group certification scheme. We provided training about the FSC principles and criteria, rules of membership, biodiversity monitoring requirements, etc. A pre-entry inspection was carried out, then the village applied for registration and once an audit was completed in 2012 it was officially approved for inclusion in the group FSC scheme.

Since joining the scheme the village has already earned Tsh. 813,416,714 (USD $412,660), which it has already begun using to build a year-round water borehole, construct classrooms and build a community marketplace.

More about Nanjirinji A Village

Nanjirinji village is named after the Nanjirinji River which flows through the area. The village existed before the national villagisation programme called Ujamaa that the government of Tanzania undertook in 1974. Some years later Nanjirinji village was judged to be too big and divided into two villages - Nanjirinji A and Nanjirinji B - for administrative purposes. Together with Nakiu, the three villages make up Nanjirinji ward today.